General

Freebies

Quicky Components

To speed up the house modeling, I provide a half-dozen dynamic
components for you to download from Google 3d Warehouse. These
component have predefined
options that can be modified so they are reusable to the degree that
you will only require one of these components for every application (
for example for all the windows of your house, even when each has
different shape and size).

There are three Quickies components used during Project One
modeling:
A Rectangle, a Door and a Window components. Three more Quickies will
be
available before we start Project Two Modeling: A Sliding door, A
Straight/U-shape stair and a Spiral Stair components.

I will discuss where and how to download the three Quickies at the
bottom of this posting.

For
now, I believe the six components will cover our need for quick and
accurate modeling. Give me a shout if you think some other kind of
dynamic components are also essential. (Just a teaser, I'll throw in a
by-fold door Dynamic Component later during the Project Two modeling).

Tips and Trick

Dynamic ComponentsUnlike its predecessor ,
a Dynamic Component (DC) can accept entries from users to modify
predefined options to control some of its elements.
A DC may also has some logic as to what each defined component element
would behave when it is clicked and/or resized.

I made all these component to help quickly find the right dimension
of windows and doors while keeping all element in the right
proportion. If we do this in the simplest way possible, we can
concentrate more on other modeling/designing aspect. For
instance, you may want to resize a
window overall dimension to fit to an existing wall. Just like in the
real word, the resizing must not effect the dimension of the sashes or
the jambs except for their length to accommodate the new overall window
size. For such reason, the door and window components are detailed in
dimension down
to rabbet depth but are missing all ornamental details such as raised
panel.

If so required, after you are comfortable with the doors/windows
dimensions, you can to replace them with more detailed components.
However, these dynamic components is "technical
drawing ready" for you to give to window/door manufacturers. You can
also edit the components, but if you edit it using SketchUp free, you
will loose their dynamic feature since Dynamic Components can only be
edited using SketchUp Pro.

Measurement Unit

By
default, the measurement unit used is in Centimeter. You can enter
as many
decimals as required. You can also enter units other
than Centimeters, as along as the entry is followed by appropriate
notation,
such
as [3.5"] or [39.15m]. It will be automatically converted into
centimeter. Any of the measurements can be modified anytime you please.

Animation

The window and door components have opening /
closing animation capability. So far, nothing technical about this
feature, but it is fun to watch.

Scaling / Change the
size of the public

Tips and Trick

Reversing Door Opening
A
single leaf door component will have right hand opening. To make it
left hand opening you can ether flip the component by activating the
Context Menu (Right Mouse Click)
and choose Flip Along - Component's Red.
or you can use Scale to and drag on side of to the door across to
another side.
The first approach is favorable if dimensions are already set to the
door.

Each
of the components has its width and length setting to accurately size
the model. In addition, the size of these
components can also be
modified using the Scaletool.
Changes to the components using this tool will modify the overall
length
and width of the components but will not effect all other dimensions
that
are not directly related to the overall size.

Scale tool can also be used to reverse opening of a single leaf door
(see Tip and Trick above)

Quicky Rectangles (1)

The first Quicky component probably is the simplest dynamic
component
ever made by human. However, I find this component useful when helping
SketchUp beginners to create floors plan because I can skip
some SketchUp concept in order not to overload with theories and
go straight into modeling.

This simple component is mainly used to make a rough
floor plan
quickly and
accurately. Based on this rough floor plan, a refined floor plan is
made
and the walls and the floor of the building are created.

Normally, one room will be represented by one Quick Rectangle. You
may need to use more than one Quicky Rectangle if some of the rooms
have irregular shapes.

During usage, you will set the component option (width and
length) according to room dimensions. You can also resize the rectangle
using scale tool and drag from one its sides. However, I suggest that
you use another object as a reference to ensure accuracy.

After
all the rooms are represented, these components will be exploded into
lines and rectangles and will disappear from the model (more on this
will be discussed later). Prior to making the wall, some wall outlines
may require editing, such adding sloping lines and curves to shape
exactly like the actual floor plan.

The figure shows Quick-nine
Rectangles that are arranged into one floor plan. Dimensions of each
room are
added for clarity.

This component can be used to accurately model a single or double
leaf door with opening/closing animation.

The structural opening will define the overall dimension
of the door.
Change
to the height (a) or
width (b) of this component can also be done using
Scale Tool. While
other settings, such as Jamb/Head's width (h),
thickness (c) and Rabbet
(g) must be set using this Component Options window.
So are the leaf's
thickness (e) and the width (f) of
the second door leaf. Naturally, with this
intended restriction, scaling the overall door dimension will not
change other dimension proportionally as it would happen if this
component were not a dynamic component.

As you can see, the width of the first door leaf is not editable
since it will be automatically calculated based on the overall
dimension, some other settings.
So if you want to have both leaves have equal width, you need to find
the net width when there is no second leaf. Divide the number by two
and enter the result as the '2nd Door Net Width' value.

Without any apparent reason, I set the degree of the second
door opening - when animated - as half of the first door maximum
opening value.

I try to make this component as a "one for all dynamic component"
that it can be 'stiched' to make different shapes of window
design. This may not be completely achieved, but they
surely are flexible enough
to appear as different set of windows as illustrated in the example.

Options available of this
component are almost similar to that of a Quick-door. One
important
difference is that in Quick window we can hide one side of the jamb so
there will only be three sides of the jamb. Side
A is the side where
the hinges reside. Side B, C and D are all other sides clock wise.

We need to hide one side of the jamb if we want to attach this
window component to another window or door component. So the merged
component will look like one

We can rotate each Quick window so the hinged side can be anywhere
else other than upper side of the jamb.

Quicky
Window Examples

Downloading the Components

The three components are ready to download from the Google 3d-
Warehouse. There are two alternative in how to download the component:

Visit the Google warehouse

Add directly to your model using the Window Components

To visit the Google ware house, just click each of the Component
Option for each of the component and it will open the respective
component's page in the warehouse. Save each of the component to sub
folder \Quickies for easy access later.

We can also add each component directly to your model
using Window Components as if they were in your local folders as if they
were in your local folder. Since there are thousands of components
already in the warehouse. You need to enter a few unique keywords to filter
your search.

Open menu Window -> Components and type [harrynov DC]. Click the
Search button (the magnifying glass) to display all my DCs component.
Click to download a component and place it to your model.

Tip & Trick

Saving components
downloaded suing the Window components to your
local folderComponents
added directly to your model using the window components are stored
only in your model. To save them to your local folder we must go back
to the Components Window and click the In Model button to display all components stored in the model.
Right Click at the component you want to save to activate a context
menu and choose 'save as' to save it to your local folder.

To avoid having to always download the same components over
and over again from the 3d warehouse, you should later save each of
these Quickies to a local folder. Save all the components to sub folder
\Quicky for later use.

Hi like the components, but a slight problem they do not cut trough the second layer of the wall, the inside if you will. this means having to go round and manually poking holes . can see the outline of the windows and doors but no cut trough. am i doing something wrong ? wall thickness 15 cm. thanksJ.Archer

This has always been an issue. Skecthup components can make automatic opening only onto one face. You may find "solution" to this by combining several components into one. But for me personally it is too cumbersome, and it may not completely applicable to dynamic components. So it is a lot simpler to cut the hole on the opposite face manually.